


i want your christmas kisses

by peraltiago_swift



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Romance, F/M, Fluff, Get Together, Romance, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 21:56:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17129450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peraltiago_swift/pseuds/peraltiago_swift
Summary: “Did you break into my house??”“You refused to put up any Christmas decorations! What choice did I have?”Chidi tells the gang that he doesn't celebrate Christmas, so Eleanor takes matters into her own hands.  Set during season three.  Based off the tumblr prompt by @writersblockbecomesunblocked . Merry Christmas!





	i want your christmas kisses

**Author's Note:**

> hi all! This is my first time posting on here, and what better ship to begin with than Chidi and Eleanor. These two stole my heart whilst I was re-binge watching The Good Place, and when I saw this prompt on tumblr a few days ago it just screamed Cheleanor to me. So this happened.
> 
> It's set during season three, when Chidi's teaching them all ethics, but as much as i adore Simone she's not involved in this fic.
> 
> It's been a hot minute since I've written, let alone posted a fanfic, so I hope you all enjoy :)  
> Merry Christmas!
> 
> title from the song 'Christmas Kisses' by Ray Anthony & His Bookends

Christmas was always a great time for Chidi when he was younger. He and his brother and sister would spend the whole lead up to Christmas belting out carols and helping their mum bake slices, cookies, gingerbread houses. This continued throughout their teenage years as well. It was one of the only times all year they’d all be together.

As Chidi got older though, his Christmas spirit faded. His mother passed away when he was twenty-five, and he soon after moved to Australia. He hadn’t seen his brother or sister in three years, and last he heard his sister was having a baby with her partner in London. He had no idea where his brother was.

And so with that, Christmas became a period of time where Chidi didn’t have to wake up at six am, didn’t have to grade papers or take classes, didn’t have to agonise over what his thesis should be. And this year, he didn’t have to teach three people who almost died lessons on how to be good.

This is what he told them two weeks before Christmas, when Jason asked him what his plans for the holidays were. He’d thought they would agree; none of them had families back where they lived that would miss them for Christmas, so they decided to stay in Australia. Tahani was spending it with her new beau, Larry, Jason with the ‘Jaguars Fan Club’ he’d just been elected president of. And Eleanor, well, Chidi was 94% certain she’d be spending it at a bar somewhere.

So that’s why he was so shocked when all three of them began lecturing him on how he’ll be spending Christmas.

“You’re kidding, man!” Eleanor shouted, slamming her palms against the table. “That’s by far the most saddest, lamest thing I’ve heard come out of your mouth, and you’ve been teaching us about PHILOSOPHY!” 

“You can come with Larry and me to his family’s house if you want,” Tahani interjected. “Although try not to converse too much with Liam or Chris, or Larry might start throwing Pavlova like he did last year.”

“Or, if you don’t want Pavlova thrown in your face, spend Christmas with me and the Jaguars Fan Club!” Jason shouted excitedly. “We’re gonna be at Matty and Jacob’s apartment, and Danny, Oliver, Frederick and Danny are all gonna be there too. It’s gonna be the BEST!”

Eleanor glanced at him, confused. “Did you just say Danny twice?”

“There’s two Danny’s bro; Danny the drug-dealer and Danny the dancer.” He nodded slowly. “Those guys sure do know how to party.”

Eleanor smirked and raised her eyebrow at Chidi in amusement. “Whattya say bud? Sound like an awesome Christmas plan, hanging out with drug-dealing, dancing Danny’s?”

Chidi’s still staring wide-eyed at Jason, once again debating teaching these people how to be good people. “I…I think I’m good, I’ll stick to my plans, thanks.”

Eleanor sighed. “Not that I blame you for passing on that one, but I still don’t like the thought of you waking up on Christmas Day with no presents under the tree and no one to spend the day with.” Chidi smiled, gazing at his blonde-haired friend as she stared at him firmly. Maybe his classes were paying off. He tried not to pay too much attention to the fact that Eleanor would be thinking about him on Christmas. He’s her teacher; it would be morally wrong to allow anything to transpire between them whilst he was teaching her five days a week. And to make sure that didn’t happen, he had to block out all thoughts like that.

“Actually, I don’t have a tree. Or decorations for that matter.”

Tahani placed her palm against her forehead, muttering “Dear Lord” under her breath, whilst Jason and Eleanor just stared at him in disbelief. “Dude, what the hell? You don’t even decorate your apartment?” she shouted, as Chidi just shook his head.

“Wait,” Jason started. “Are you part of that religion that doesn’t celebrate Christmas?”

Chidi blinked. “No.”

“Oh, okay.” Jason then wandered off to the corner of the room, grabbing multiple candy canes from the jar. Eleanor shook her head and sighed. “Such a simple man.” She turned back to Chidi. “Right, well after this class I am taking you to the nearest store that sells Christmas decorations, and we are buying you some! And we’ll see if they have any fake trees as well, I don’t think there’s anywhere in the middle of Sydney that sells real ones.”

Chidi grabbed her shoulders, feeling his palms tingle as he does. “Whilst I’m very grateful, Eleanor, I think it’s for the best if I don’t this year, okay? Thank you for the offer, but it’s quite alright.” He grinned down at her, trying to reassure her concerned face. He could see her blue eyes searching his, her eyebrows raised and her nose scrunched up just the tiniest bit. He felt his heart beat erratically. 

Eventually Eleanor sighed and threw her hands in the air as if surrendering. “Fine, don’t celebrate Christmas. But if you get lonely on Christmas Day, don’t come crying for me. That is, if you even find me, cause I’m going to be drinking my troubles away at some bar with all the other losers who don’t have anyone else to celebrate with, and you won’t be able to find me.” She slumped back down into her seat, hurt clouding her features and Chidi has to turn back to his board before he feels the urge to fall to his knees in front of her and apologise profusely.

“This isn’t good,” he murmured to himself, before taking a deep breath and facing the group again, plastering a bright smile onto his face. “Okay, let’s continue with Kierkegaard…”

 

Chidi’s startled awake by a loud thump coming from his living room. It’s Christmas Eve, and he imagines some kid being awoken by the same noise and running into the room shouting “Santa!” He used to be that kid.

Hurriedly he fumbles for his lamp switch and reaches for his glasses, his heart beating. Tiptoeing out of his room Chidi tried to regulate his breathing and listen. Faintly, he heard rustling, something that sounded like bells and then a hushed curse.

“Oh…my goodness,” Chidi panicked. “I’m being robbed on Christmas Eve.” He looked around him, trying and failing to find something to fend off the intruder with. He’s never had to resort to violence in a situation before; usually his indecisiveness just drove someone away.

Another curse sounded from the main room, followed what sounded like…someone singing Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer?

Chidi nervously poked his head around the corner and his eyes widened in disbelief. His whole room, previously bare of Christmas cheer, was now covered from floor to ceiling in red and green. There’s a wreath on the inside of his front door, with what looks like mistletoe hanging above the entrance; tinsel is strewn across his coffee table and window sill, and there’s miniature reindeer and angel ornaments placed on his bookshelves, along with a singing, dancing Rudolph still blasting Christmas carols. 

But what caught Chidi’s attention was in the corner of the room. A Christmas tree, about the same height as him, is standing there, its branches filled with baubles and bells. And to complete the look, a short, blonde-haired Arizona trash bag wearing a Santa hat was attempting to put a star on top of the tree, with minimal success.

Chidi chuckled, reaching from behind and taking the star from her hand before placing in on the tree with ease. Eleanor groaned and pouted. “Man, I wanted this to be a surprise for you, why’d you have to go and ruin it?”

He grinned, still in awe yet slightly sceptical at his newly decorated apartment. And at her. “I’m surprised I didn’t wake up sooner, I mean, you moved a TREE in by yourself.”

“Actually, I had Tahani and Jason help me.” She rubbed her arm sheepishly. “Well actually, Larry and Jason helped move it in, with Tahani kind of just whisper-telling us how to manoeuvre it.”

“That sounds about right.” Chidi looked around, expecting the other three to appear somewhere. “Where are they then? Don’t tell me they stole my stuff and ran off.”  
Eleanor scoffed. “What, no!” Chidi raised an eyebrow and she rolled her eyes. “Obviously Tahani didn’t, she actually looked horrified by what she saw. Jason on the other hand…”  
Chidi shook his head. “Just tell him whatever he took he can keep, who knows what he does with it anyway.” He heard Eleanor chuckle as he headed to the kitchen to fix them some eggnog.

“Hey, your un-festive spirit has a festive drink!” She jumped up onto the counter beside him, fixing her hat as it began sliding off her head. “I knew there was a merry soul trapped underneath all that ethics mumbo-jumbo!”

“There always was Eleanor. Besides, you don’t get to say anything like that right now. Technically, you broke into my house!”

“You refused to put up any decorations, what choice did I have?” She stared at him incredulously. Chidi scrutinised their eggnog instead. He really didn’t want to talk about the sadness he felt around Christmastime with her. 

But she didn’t back down, realising her friend’s sudden mood change. She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Hey man, you wanna talk about it? I know I’m not always great at listening-“ He smirked at that, all too familiar with her inattentiveness and she grinned. “But I know what having sucky holidays feels like.”

He glanced up at her. “You do?”

“Sure I do, everyone always has at least one anyway. But for me, it was practically my whole childhood. My mum would often forget and just get blackout drunk, or sometimes work on Christmas Day to earn more money to buy drugs. And my dad would only send me twenty bucks, but that was always after I reminded him it was Christmas.” Eleanor examined the ground, her features a combination of hurt and frustration. “Really, I’ve never even had a proper Christmas. With anyone. And Christmas is a time to be happy, you know, and out of everyone I’ve ever known, which is a lot of people, you deserve it the most.” She glanced back up at Chidi with a small smile. “But yeah Cheedster, I know how you’re feeling.”

She jumped down from the bench just as Chidi opened his mouth to reply, but she covered his mouth with her hand. “If you want me to get rid of all this Christmas stuff, that’s cool. I was really out of line anyway, and I’m sorry about that.” She looked back to him, expecting him to now say something.

Chidi’s mind is reeling. With everything Eleanor just told him about herself and with everything he already knows about her from the many months they’ve been together, he never expected her to be this forward and open about her past. Whenever he’d question her about her life in Arizona, she’d either change the subject or tell a crazy story about someone she once knew. What she told him, just now, was unexpected to him.

But it also tore away some of the doubt he was feeling about Eleanor’s feelings towards him.

He stepped towards her and her eyes immediately drew to his. “Since my mum died,” Chidi began, “I’ve never really enjoyed the holidays. My siblings and I went from singing carols and baking treats every year to not even knowing where any of us live.” Eleanor nodded, looking down shamefully. Chidi grabbed her hands.

“This year though, is the closest I’ve been to a group of people, the closest I’ve been to just one person, in a long, long time.” He took a deep breath as Eleanor’s eyes widened. “And from what I’ve learned about you, Eleanor, is that acts like these, acts like breaking into a friend’s apartment just to decorate it, don’t come easily for you.”

He felt her hands tense up within his, her defensive barrier coming up, so he continued hurriedly. “So, I can’t believe that I, the most indecisive person who struggles choosing what jam to have on his toast for breakfast, is about to do this.”

Eleanor gazed at him quizzically. “Wait, do wh-“ Her words were cut off by Chidi, more specifically his lips, as he surged forward to trap her in a kiss. His hands held her face and instantly her arms moved to wrap around his neck, her lips moving with as much fervour as his. 

For once, Chidi’s mind stops whirling, for once it’s silent. There are no thoughts on what will happen once they break away, or what will happen when he goes back to teaching her, or even the day she’ll say her final goodbye as she leaves for Arizona and he stays in Sydney.

None of that occurs to him. All he’s thinking about is Eleanor’s lips fusing with his, tasting of strawberries, her standing on her tiptoes as her arms wrap tightly around him, pulling him closer until he can feel her heart beating against him.

A bell sounds in the distance, chiming twelve times in sync with the shouts of “Merry Christmas!” from drunken partygoers at the bar down the street. They pulled away with tingling lips and dazed thoughts. She grinned up at him, a grin so contagious he had to smile back.

“About time you did that,” she whispered and he laughed. “If I knew you were this into me I would’ve broken into your apartment months ago.”

Chidi just shook his head, not taking his eyes off of her. “Merry Christmas, Eleanor.”

She leaned up and pecked his lips, and he felt his heart soar. “Merry Christmas, Chidi.”


End file.
